00:05:57.780All right, we're not getting Rachel's audio. So we'll get that sorted out in a moment. Again, I apologize for the technical issues here. But at the same time, we are a bootstraps operation. So we will get this to you as soon as we can. Let's just talk about the road forward here, William, because obviously there's been a lot of confusion about the I don't even want to say confusion, but a lot of conflict in the race about the Sovereignty Act.
00:06:21.500This was Danielle Smith's flagship policy, and it really became, I think, the punching bag that everyone in the race really started to take their swings at.
00:06:30.480And I'm wondering, it's not a fait accompli, of course, but if Danielle Smith is the leader and if this is, as she promises, Bill 1 under the Danielle Smith government, a lot of these people that were railing against this bill will have to support it, will they not?
00:06:44.760So how does the unity question work after a race like this?
00:06:47.560Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think that will be probably, if it is Danielle Smith who's elected tonight, that will be a big challenge she has, is uniting her caucus, her new caucus, of which she is not yet a member.
00:07:01.880She doesn't have a seat in the Alberta legislature. She would have to spend an awful lot of time making sure that caucus got on board with what she's been proposing.
00:07:14.160And given how many of the leadership candidates came out very strongly against her signature policy, that unity is going to pose quite a challenge for her.
00:07:24.180And caucus unity has been what has spelled the death knell for so many Alberta conservative leaders, if you think back to...
00:07:32.760Including Jason Kenney. I mean, part of the reason we're here.
00:07:36.520Exactly. But the reason we're all here is because he couldn't keep his caucus united and together.
00:07:42.320And then before him, Alison Redford was pushed out by a caucus revolt.
00:07:47.420Ed Stelmack really had to step down as premier because of a caucus revolt.
00:07:51.060And, of course, at one point, Danielle Smith faced a very famous caucus revolt.
00:07:55.260So the question will be, has she learned from some of these things in the past?
00:07:59.260Has she learned from Alberta's political history?
00:08:01.800And can she avoid repeating some of the mistakes that have been made by so many who came before her?
00:17:03.780I think, you know, from what we've seen in the polls, as well as, you know, just the membership engagement,
00:17:10.160I do think Danielle Smith will come out on top on the first ballot.
00:17:13.840Well, we'll probably go through a few rounds before we figure out who's the next leader of the United Conservative Party.
00:17:19.760And if Danielle doesn't have a first ballot victory, you know, we've seen a lot of her candidates, her opponents and other UCP MLAs attack her throughout this leadership race.
00:17:28.260If she doesn't have a first ballot victory, is her ability to unify the caucus going to be that much harder or do you think it won't matter?
00:20:17.360You know, on the Sovereignty Act, we saw Alberta Premier Jason Kenney sort of waited and he commented on it.
00:20:21.520He said he thought it would make Alberta a laughingstock.
00:20:23.800Of course, then Kenney's third party advertiser Shaping Alberta's Future,
00:20:26.680which on its website said it was created to promote Kenney.
00:20:29.020It came out and was also attacking Danielle Smith.
00:20:30.980It said she wasn't a real conservative and sort of critiqued some of her stances in the past.
00:20:35.200I'm wondering if you think, you know, Kenny's decision to take a position in this UCB leadership race
00:20:38.760impacted the outcome of the leadership race, and if so, how it did that?
00:20:42.840Yeah, well, first I want to disclose, like, Jason Kenney is a friend and someone as party president
00:20:46.520that I work closely with, but I don't think it's appropriate for a current leader to interfere in a leadership race.
00:20:54.100So I do think that it was probably because there wasn't a strong effort or a success
00:20:58.180by some of the other leadership candidates that he felt he needed to step in for whatever reason he
00:21:03.100chose to. And I actually think it helped Smith. I think it helped Smith in a lot of the rural
00:21:07.600ridings. I think it helped show that, you know, she is not so much of the same, which I think
00:21:12.700people were frustrated with. And so, you know, obviously, again, on the broader population,
00:21:18.020that didn't help because he has such a large voice across the province as opposed to just
00:21:22.840the party. But I don't think it's going to hurt her in this leadership race.
00:21:26.180Sure. Great. Well, thank you very much, Erica. I'm just going to throw it back to the room and see if there's any questions Andrew would like to ask.
00:21:32.380One thing I would just ask, purely on a self-indulgent level, Erica, obviously you are a senator-elect and we know that the federal government has not regarded the Senate elections in Alberta as being legitimate here.
00:21:44.860Are all the candidates generally in alignment that they want elected senators in Ottawa?
00:21:50.700Are all the UCP leadership candidates generally in agreement that they want elected senators in Ottawa?
00:21:55.320I mean, selfishly, I would really like that to happen, as I'm sure, well, you know, I'm not sure if all of the viewers know, I was one of the elected senators that was chosen by Albertans in 2021.
00:22:08.960So I do think that they believe in that process.
00:22:11.860I think that's a big sign of having our right to choose and having, you know, that regional representation that the Senate was actually designed for.
00:22:20.380I haven't personally asked them, but I'm pretty confident that, you know,
00:22:23.480passing that piece of the act and all of them voting in favor of it shows that they do believe.
00:22:28.200I mean, we want to take, I think as UCPers, we want to take less power from,
00:22:32.520take power, sorry, take power away from Ottawa and put it to our population.
00:22:37.340So I can't see how under the party banner they would not support it.
00:22:41.280Well, absolutely. All right. Well, thank you very much, Erica. I appreciate your insight.
00:26:45.600every morning to go to work. So I think history will be kinder. I do think he will suffer some
00:26:52.300problems around how he managed COVID. And I think, to be honest, he hasn't really understood himself
00:26:58.360where the problems were with what he did. And, you know, sometimes it's hard when it's you
00:27:04.360to be, you know, introspective on your own actions. But, you know, the handful of things
00:27:10.460that I'm thinking of was pursuing public health orders against pastors, for example, the flip
00:27:17.020flopping on vaccine passports saying there wouldn't be one. And now they're and then making
00:27:22.760it mandatory. So I think things like that, it's his COVID management that I think is going to
00:27:26.980linger in some people's minds as the problem. But if you look at the non COVID things, I think
00:27:32.360Kenny, JC Kenny actually has quite a record to be proud of. Yeah, I've heard of these ads trying
00:27:38.100to woo Ontarians to Alberta and I worry for your sake and the sake of a province that I love dearly
00:27:44.080Alberta it's going to be Florida where like they're going to import all their voting tendencies
00:27:48.300as well but we'll we'll cross that bridge when we get to it I want to go back to Rachel Emanuel
00:27:53.140in Calgary who has I believe someone from Danielle Smith's campaign with her we're going to do this
00:27:58.400with all the campaigns take it away Rachel yeah hi thanks Andrew I'm here with Matthew Alltime he
00:28:03.500was the campaign manager for Danielle Smith thanks for joining us Matt I'm wondering if
00:28:07.080you're hearing anything so far if you have any predictions for what the vote result is going to
00:28:10.540look like tonight my predictions are still the same as this morning where you still got to wait
00:28:14.780for them all to come in and hopefully uh the hard work of daniel smith she's been a great candidate
00:28:19.360to to work for hopefully that's results in a victory tonight sure great so i'm wondering if
00:28:24.120you think there was any sort of fatal flaws in the campaign is there anything you wish that you had
00:28:27.460done better you know big mess ups that you saw tonight that could lead to a lower turnout tonight
00:28:32.100than you were hoping for i don't think so i think i have a sincere candidate who puts it all all
00:28:36.520the cards to the table and really means what she says when she speaks and so she's in a great job
00:28:41.200I think I we all stand behind her the entire campaign team 110% and what we've accomplished
00:28:45.760and uh there's nothing we would change we've spoken about this a little bit on the show tonight
00:28:50.480the Alberta Sovereignty Act dominated so much discussion throughout the you know the leadership
00:28:54.720race you saw I'm sure at all the events that you were at I saw it at all the events that I was at
00:28:58.480do you think that this benefited Danielle Smith or do you think that it was negative in the sense
00:29:02.460that so many of her opponents painted it so negatively and that's a record that she's going
00:29:06.240have to run against in the spring general election no i think i think we saw the first uh kind of
00:29:12.640invocation of the sovereignty act uh last week when the justice minister kind of used it in a
00:29:17.040way on the rcmp gun grab so and uh kind of a shocking turn of events vaskatchewan and manitoba
00:29:22.480feel the same way so i think daniel's sovereignty act is exactly what alberta needs uh you know if
00:29:27.200the toronto star hates it it must be working and i think albertans want a premier that's uh that's
00:29:32.000it's strong and stands strong and means what she says and has strong policy to back it up.
00:29:36.660Something that we've seen from some of Smith's critics as well is that she's going to struggle
00:29:40.120with caucus unity. I'm wondering if you feel this way as well or you know you you've known her
00:29:44.100better than most people would. Have you seen efforts from her in recent days to sort of unify
00:29:47.920the caucus? Has she already begun working on building some of those relationships?
00:29:52.280You know I think she's been reaching out to MLAs from day one and she's been able to attract a lot
00:29:56.800of MLA endorsements including two who have switched from other campaigns. So I think it's a testament
00:30:00.900durability to listen to sit down with people say hey what's going on what are your ideas and
00:30:04.580policies for government i think that was refreshing for them to hear you know it's been a couple years
00:30:08.180of division and a lot of emily's felt left out of the policy making process in government so i think
00:30:12.820she's willing to bridge that and show them that she's genuine bring your policies and good ideas
00:30:16.740to the table and let's let's roll all right well thank you very much matt back to the studio
00:30:22.740all right thank you very much rachel and thank you matt we're going to have lots of interviews to
00:30:28.740come with representatives from other campaigns as the evening proceeds Andrew Lawton here with
00:30:34.180William Macbeth for True North and I just want to tell you here I mean this is one of many
00:30:39.540opportunities that we take throughout the year when big things are happening to host a live show
00:30:43.060around them sometimes we do them in the studio sometimes we have people on the ground and all
00:30:47.380over like tonight and we cannot do any of this without your support and I truly truly mean that
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00:30:58.080uh if so we'd be doing it from like a private jet flying over the maldives or something not from
00:31:02.720uh where we are but we are always always always striving to be on the ground for the story and
00:31:07.860we need the people that value the work we do to support us so we can continue doing that so if
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00:31:19.160from Alberta, we cover Ontario elections, federal elections, all sorts of stuff. And I think the
00:31:24.100general tenor of this night is that the Conservative movement is having it say, not just
00:31:29.800one particular party. And I think this has been a shift we've seen really in the last year. And I
00:31:35.220want to just, I'll get back to the Alberta specific focus here, but I wanted to ask you about that
00:31:40.000more generally, William, because there are, I think, a lot of parallels if you look at the
00:31:43.980people that are being engaged in the process here in politics this year, from the convoy to
00:31:49.020Pierre Polyev's leadership campaign to, I'd say, largely Daniel Smith, but in general,
00:31:54.240the UCP leadership race as well. Are we seeing this significant turning point in conservative
00:31:59.600politics in Canada in general right now? Yeah, I mean, I think it's so fascinating to look at,
00:32:06.180you know, how conservative parties have changed and how their membership base has evolved. And
00:32:12.940And I think you are seeing a pretty fundamental shift that actually started in other countries a bit earlier.
00:32:20.160I think you saw with the election of U.S. President Donald Trump, there was very much this move away from establishment politics towards, you know, outsiders and, you know, getting rid of maybe some of the traditional alliances that had existed.
00:32:37.380I think Republicans would have thought of themselves as the party of big business.
00:32:43.100But in the last couple of elections, they've been really focusing on blue collar workers, people who live and work in middle America, who have seen their jobs exported to foreign countries.
00:32:54.600You saw the same thing with the defeat or the successful Brexit vote where Britain decided to leave the European Union and the election of Boris Johnson with a huge then majority election.
00:33:07.380And now I'm thinking Canada with the Freedom Convoy protest, you're starting to see this idea that too much of establishment government politics and society isn't working for ordinary people.
00:33:19.340Jason Kenney's ads inviting young Torontonians to come to Alberta because they can actually afford a house reflects the fact that how did we get into this mess where people living in Canada's largest city can't afford to buy homes in that city?
00:33:33.080that they're having to wait 30 or 40 years before they can actually get onto the property ladder
00:34:01.020And just to bring it back to an Alberta context, in Ontario, we had two parties that popped up that really didn't make a dent, that were trying to be the true conservatives, the alternative conservative option.
00:34:13.580You had the New Blue and the Ontario Party in the polls didn't really translate to anything.
00:34:37.960Now you've got an Alberta independence party with Archer Pulaski at the helm.
00:34:42.100So you're always going to have, it sounds like, these aggrieved parties.
00:34:45.300But in Alberta in particular, it does seem like it's harder to get everyone to play on the same team.
00:34:50.900So do you think there is going to be an issue from these smaller parties in the next election?
00:34:56.320I mean, I think that's a critical question. When I talked a little bit earlier about uniting the factions of the United Conservative Party, putting the word united back in that party name is going to be a tremendous challenge, because how do you square some of the different coalitions?
00:35:12.960Like if you look at the slate of candidates running to be leader, you've got everyone from Lila Ahir to Todd Lowen.
00:35:21.900And how can they both be in a single political party when they seem so opposite on so many policy areas?
00:35:29.140So in some ways, I think the United Conservative Party will have to think about what it wants to be.
00:35:34.600You know, who does it want to appeal to? What policies does it want to have?
00:35:37.860And how can it build a broad enough coalition in order to win an election, but not become so big that it turned into the old PC party where it really stopped being conservative in many, many ways.
00:35:50.380And why, you know, the Wild Rose Party, which is a party I worked for for four years, trying to make government, why that got the boost of support it did that even at one point looked like we might win an election.
00:36:01.800Just one point I do want to make, which I think is interesting, was when Danielle Smith first announced her candidacy, I didn't know if Albertans were going to accept her return from kind of political exile after the floor crossing and after she had kind of blown up politically and was regarded as almost a pariah.
00:36:24.680I didn't know how it was going to be that she could come back.
00:36:27.860The fact that she has come back and faced relatively little opposition for it,
00:36:32.120to me, tells me that she does have a very good chance of putting forward an option to voters
00:36:37.100because they aren't going to, if her own party can forgive her for what had happened
00:36:41.420and elect her leader, I think everyday Albertans can make that leap as well.
00:36:46.000Yes, and I used to guest host for Danielle Smith when she was on the radio at 770 CHQR in Calgary.
00:36:53.260And I remember when she started that show, I mean, the audience hated her.
00:37:20.080And a lot of those people, the ones that I was talking about a moment ago that might be inclined to support the Wild Rose Independence Party or the Alberta Independence Party, she's actually listened to their concerns and shares some of them, although believes that the UCP is clearly the vehicle to advance that.
00:37:35.120So I think a lot of people who did have an open mind really did see in Danielle someone that was prepared to own that mistake and move forward.
00:37:47.440And I mean, I think if you have a leader who is prepared to consider alternative points of view, even if they don't necessarily 100 percent agree with them, I do think you have a lot of an easier time in keeping people inside the coalition.
00:38:01.620I think to our illustrious prime minister, Mr. Trudeau, and how he handled the trucker convoy protests and something that people have really pointed to as why they disliked the federal government's handling was he simply wouldn't meet with the protesters and he wouldn't listen to their concerns.
00:38:20.580And if he had done that, I suspect a lot of the wind in the sails of that protest would have gone, and it would have ended probably a little bit sooner and maybe wouldn't have involved the invocation of the emergency act.
00:45:19.720Something else we've heard a lot about in this leadership race is caucus unity.
00:45:22.560You know, we need a leader who is going to be able to unite the party.
00:45:25.560Do you think that if Danielle Smith doesn't win on the first ballot, she wins later on, on the fifth or the sixth ballot, as you mentioned, is still a possibility?
00:45:31.440Will it make it harder for her to unify the caucus, you know, showing she doesn't have as much support as people perhaps thought she did?
00:45:38.320When you win on the first ballot and you win big, you do a Pierre-Paulie Evers style win.
00:45:42.380You get to claim a mandate that tells people, line up behind me, do what I tell you to do.
00:45:57.740there's an opportunity to build caucus unity in both circumstances it just requires different
00:46:05.580efforts to do those things. Sure I just give a notice that we heard a five minute warning to
00:46:09.980take our seat so that's good news we'll hopefully be getting some results pretty quickly but I have
00:46:13.840just a couple more questions for you here you know you just mentioned some of the things Danielle's
00:46:16.840going to need to do some different steps have you seen her making those steps already you know
00:46:20.560has she been reaching out to your campaign has she been showing a coordinated effort to work
00:46:24.040with you guys after today's vote? One of the disappointments of this race is the team Danielle
00:46:29.980was probably a little bit more insular than the other teams. So they've got some work to do on
00:46:34.720that front. There were open lines of communication amongst the other six teams. The lines of
00:46:41.260communication with team Danielle were a little bit weaker. She's got to fix that. Doesn't mean
00:46:47.240she can't doesn't mean that she won't if she wins but it's it's something that she needs to start
00:46:54.440working on tonight if she wins um because they weren't working on it very much for the last two
00:47:00.200weeks. Another thing that Danielle is going to be facing in addition to needing to unify the
00:47:04.100caucus is of course she's going to be up for a general election in just a short matter of months
00:47:07.560you know the Alberta Sovereignty Act has received so much attention throughout this leadership race
00:47:11.060and a lot of it very negative attention even from within you know her own party some of the
00:47:14.740opponents in this leadership race. Is that going to be a detriment against her in the general
00:47:18.480election? I think that Danielle will have to refocus the UCP's campaign on the issues that
00:47:26.820matter to Albertans. I think that's going to be a lot about health care. I think that's going to
00:47:29.640be a lot about cost of living. I think that's going to be a lot about broader energy policy,
00:47:34.160a lot of pocketbook issues. If she does re-establish her connection with Albertans on
00:47:39.880those issues, they'll move past the Sovereignty Act. The Sovereignty Act, we're still unclear as
00:47:45.180to what and how it is, and we'll get to see what becomes of it. But there's lots of room to pick
00:47:51.080issues that move Alberta voters. Great. Thanks so much, Vitor. I'm just going to throw it back to
00:47:55.040the studio. Thank you very much, Vitor Marciano and Rachel Emanuel in Calgary. That event is
00:48:03.160going to be starting up in just a couple of moments. So if you're just tuning in, I'm Andrew
00:48:07.580Lawton. Hi, thanks for being with us. Joined by William Macbeth. This is the True North results
00:48:12.540show for the United Conservative Party leadership race, the second leadership race the UCP has ever
00:48:18.320had. The first one, of course, seeing Brian Jean running again, going up against Jason Kenney,
00:48:23.300who won very decisively. And the big question is going to be unity. And I know that we're talking
00:48:29.900about Danielle Smith, who has been a clear front runner. She is not the winner yet and technically
00:48:34.580may not be the winner. The reality is these ranked ballots can make a lot of different things happen
00:48:39.760in the race. And you have to get over that 50% plus one threshold. And if, you know, let's say
00:48:46.420Lila here and Rajan Sani and Rebecca Schultz do very well and their votes go to Travis Tavesay
00:48:53.680or Brian Jean, this is a way that Danielle Smith could find herself in the lead on every ballot
00:48:58.640except for the last one. And that's what happened federally to Maxime Bernier. He led every single
00:49:04.340round of balloting except for the 13th which ended up being the final round and that was the round
00:49:08.960that gave Andrew Scheer the win. So just as we're waiting to get things rolling here I want to kick
00:49:15.920over to you William and ask you generally about you're a political strategist you've got a good
00:49:21.240mind for this thing no matter who the leader is how do they get that runway clear and start
00:49:28.200immediately from day one campaigning. So what is your if you're the chief of staff to the new
00:49:33.260premier, whoever it is. What's your advice to them on the first seven days, the first 30 days,
00:49:38.120and then the next nine months? So, I mean, I think these are critical questions and they're
00:49:43.280the ones that every one of the candidates should be thinking about right now. At least initially,
00:49:49.980caucus unity is going to have to be the very first job of the new leader. If it's Travis Tades,
00:49:56.100that'll probably be a little bit easier in order because he had so much caucus support. But of
00:50:00.520course, he was also in the Kenny cabinet that a lot of MLAs had concerns and issues with. So I
00:50:06.660think he's going to have to try and explain and convince that some of his caucus that he is not
00:50:11.700just more of the same when it comes to Jason Kenney and how business was before. And obviously,
00:50:18.080we talked about Danielle and needing to bring in people who maybe haven't supported her in this
00:50:23.260leadership race. They endorsed other candidates. She's going to have to really work hard to bring
00:50:28.120them on board. But once she gets caucus unity done, I think she's going to have to spend a lot
00:50:33.380of time traveling Alberta, meeting with groups of voters, meeting with, you know, the stereotypical
00:50:39.580meetings in the church basement and sitting down with these groups and really listening to their
00:50:45.100concerns and understanding them. And, you know, it's something she's done in the past. I mean,
00:50:50.020I worked for Danielle Smith for four years and she loved to tour. And I think that's a real
00:50:55.780strength. And it's something she had in common with Jason Kenney, who also loved to travel around
00:51:01.260and meet with groups of people. So I think that's it. And then it'll be important to understand the
00:51:06.540best way to fight and win an election in Alberta right now. And if it were up to me, I don't think
00:51:12.640Rachel Notley is the primary opponent in an Alberta election. I believe it's Prime Minister
00:51:19.120Justin Trudeau. So if I were the new leader, I would be talking about fighting back against the
00:51:25.040Trudeau liberals fighting GAC against Prime Minister Trudeau. And I would try and sideline
00:51:30.460Rachel Notley and the Democrats. Or if I do talk about them, I talk about them as part of that
00:51:35.020liberal NDP coalition. So I think that was a mistake Kenny made was focusing a little too
00:51:41.180much on Notley and not going hard enough against Justin Trudeau. I think that the new leader really
00:51:46.700does have to understand there is little love in Alberta for the Trudeau family as a whole. Maybe
00:51:52.780maybe his children. We don't know him that well, but we don't love him. We don't love his father.
00:51:58.740And I think, you know, making him public enemy number one, really having him be the antithesis
00:52:03.400is going to be a smart political strategy for whoever wins. I would agree with that. And it's
00:52:08.100interesting because on the surface, I mean, any Alberta conservative I know just hates the very
00:52:12.140idea of the NDP. But as a person, Rachel Notley does not have the negative association that Justin
00:52:19.380Trudeau does on personality, on policy, on anything. And her government, I mean, did a lot
00:52:24.780of very harmful things, but it wasn't a scandal-plagued government. I mean, as far as
00:52:28.740integrity, I think Rachel Notley probably wins over Alison Redford, say. So you are right that
00:52:34.040I think there needs to be this square focus on our enemy is not the NDP, our enemy is Ottawa.
00:52:40.460Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, the good thing, of course, is that there is that ready-made
00:52:44.960opponent in the form of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has maintained an opposition to
00:52:50.580oil and oil and gas and pipelines and all sorts of things which are important to the livelihood
00:52:55.280of Albertans. So there is plenty of opportunity to push that. And I think that's how Danielle
00:53:00.860sells her Sovereignty Act, maybe not in the fine details of how it stops a law or may stop a law
00:53:07.540or doesn't stop a law, but in sending the clear message to Ottawa that they need to get out of
00:53:12.820Alberta and stop hurting our province. Yeah. And let me just, I mean, ask you just,
00:53:19.200what are your top three issues on the agenda that you think the next premier needs to put
00:53:23.020at Justin Trudeau's feet at the negotiating table? I mean, I think we're going to have to
00:53:28.760have an important conversation about equalization. I think Albertans believe it is an unfair formula
00:53:34.200and, you know, the left often likes to point out that it was negotiated under Stephen Harper.
00:53:38.940Well, the world was very different when that negotiation last happened. And now we think that Alberta is penalized for having to send so much money to other provinces who aren't particularly grateful for the financial contributions Alberta makes to the Federation.
00:53:55.120Quebec has has in particular maintained a very anti-energy policy towards Alberta. So I definitely think that's on the topic.
00:54:02.640I think there are conversations around energy infrastructure. You know, the prime minister has said things like phase out oil and gas or end oil and gas. And I think Alberta has to be absolutely strong and say, look, we have this brilliant advanced sector that does a great job.
00:54:19.840It is making improvements to how it does its business of extracting oil and gas.
00:54:25.140And we are world leaders in some of that.
00:54:27.540Why would you strangle something which brings wealth and energy security to not just all of Canada, but it could be to bring it to international countries as well?
00:54:37.520And then I think if it were me, I would probably want to start to tackle health care because I think there's a real dissatisfaction amongst Albertans with the status quo on their health care system.
00:54:46.440The Liberals have always said they will not tolerate anybody deviating from a single publicly funded universal health care system.
00:54:55.260They don't want a 1.5 system. They don't want any form of innovation.
00:54:59.440I think Danielle or whoever it is could take a firm stand and say, well, no, health care is a provincial jurisdiction.
00:55:06.000We are going to innovate in health care.
00:55:09.160Just if you're tuning in now, we are carrying the United Conservative Party leadership results.
00:55:14.440results. They'll be starting up any moment now. The official program it sounds like is just about
00:55:20.660to get underway. They're just doing some housekeeping and formalities right now and
00:55:25.040once the the actual program and presentations begin we will throw live to it as soon as that
00:55:31.900happens and that is is taking place in Calgary and what we understand is that after the issues
00:55:37.060that they encountered today the the one thing that I would point out is that they are delayed
00:55:43.460but they've promised, it sounds like, and we're keeping our fingers crossed that the results are
00:55:47.460going to be delivered very quickly. So as I understand it, the ballots have been counted.
00:55:52.600They have the result. They're not going to be needlessly going through the process of keeping
00:55:57.520us all in suspense, which, as we know from the 2020 federal conservative leadership race, can
00:56:03.780sometimes last quite a bit. That was the infamous broadcast that went to 3 a.m., but even the last
00:56:08.900one was quicker for Pierre Paglia. But still, they did drag it on, even though they had the
00:56:13.540answer. So we are going to go live to the events in Calgary. I believe they're just doing the
00:56:18.620national anthem right now. But we'll go to that feed.
00:56:38.900We see thee rise, thou true life's strong and free.
00:56:48.900From far and wide, O Canada, we stand and guard for thee.
01:10:01.520Obviously, you can do a leadership race on a very expedited timeframe.
01:10:05.100I think the record goes to the Ontario PCs in 2018,
01:10:08.400when they basically had to do the whole thing in about six weeks.
01:10:11.680The UCP took about five months, but still, they weren't planning for a race.
01:10:15.160They were planning to be getting ready for a general election right now.
01:10:18.680So generally speaking, William, let me just ask you that.
01:10:21.620Do you think that it has been a race that has been effectively and well organized and well run by the candidates and by the party itself?
01:10:31.300Yeah, I mean, I haven't particularly heard a lot of concerns about the administration of the leadership race.
01:10:37.440You know, the only grumbling I heard was the decision of having Premier Kenney remain as premier up until the new premier is chosen.
01:10:47.680Although personally, I think bringing in an interim premier adds some instability when we were still in a time of dealing with, you know, a public health issue.
01:11:01.440But no, I really haven't heard concerns that the race wasn't run in a fair and equitable manner.
01:11:07.440Um, I, I think the campaigns of the different candidates, um, probably weren't the strongest
01:12:29.880And when I saw eight great candidates moving forward, I just thought being the ninth on the table was just really too much.
01:12:37.160The reason why I endorsed Travis Tays is I'd worked with him.
01:12:39.840I'd worked with him as he was in the Department of Finance, and I knew he was a principal leader.
01:12:45.800I knew he would create stable leadership for Alberta, which I thought was really, really important for the business conditions that we currently are living in.
01:16:48.580in the areas outside Edmonton and Calgary.
01:16:51.340And I think Calgary will be a battleground.
01:16:53.320So I suspect that the new premier and his or her team
01:16:56.680will be spending an awful lot of time in Calgary,
01:16:59.260talking to Calgarians and showing not just the successes that have happened under the UCP,
01:17:04.980but putting forward an agenda that will appeal to Calgarians.
01:17:08.200This, I believe, will be the city where the next election, the next government is decided.
01:17:12.640We are, throughout the course of the evening, just playing some clips from our coverage and interviews
01:17:17.320with the leadership candidates throughout the race.
01:17:20.040I want to go to a clip now of my interview, just, I think it was about four or five weeks ago,
01:17:24.960with Brian Jean, one of the candidates who we heard from his campaign team member Vitor Marciano
01:17:30.480a few moments ago. Let's talk about the equalization aspect specifically. We know
01:17:37.180that Albertans overwhelmingly voted to really re-evaluate the equalization system that we have
01:17:43.780right now. And obviously the prevailing thesis is that when a province comes together like that
01:17:48.980and votes in such a way, the federal government has to negotiate. But a duty to negotiate,
01:17:53.780A constitutional duty to negotiate is not a duty or requirement to give any concession.
01:17:59.060And the Liberals have been consistently resistant to, I think, respecting a lot of the concerns that Albertans have.
01:18:06.080So what would you do differently or what would you do to actually get what it is that Alberta wants and needs from the federal government at that negotiating table?
01:18:15.000I'm glad you asked that because other candidates are talking about getting angry and what we're going to do up to a certain point.
01:18:20.820But they have no answers for what happens afterwards.
01:18:23.780So they're riling people up, getting people mad for no reason.
01:18:27.780We live in an amazing country, it's a free country, and the Constitution clearly lays
01:18:34.160out that under Section 46, if a majority of a population in a certain area is dissatisfied
01:18:39.300with the current Confederation and how they're being treated under Confederation, we can
01:18:43.980send notice after receiving a clear mandate from the people, a majority of the people,
01:18:48.960a good majority, we can send that mandate to the people under the Section 46 notice
01:18:53.220then they have to sit down and negotiate with us and if they don't then we go to the supreme
01:18:55.780court of canada and ask for reference listen you know let's be clear here i'm the only lawyer
01:19:00.660litigator person that spent 10 years practicing the law here in alberta i know how it works i'm
01:19:04.740not guessing that i don't have to talk to another uh government bureaucrat lawyer to tell me how to
01:19:10.100pursue this and how to go forward i've spent enough time understanding both 10 years federally
01:19:14.260as a member of parliament as a parliamentary secretary and as a practicing law in alberta
01:19:18.420for 10 years and then as a business person i know what albertans want they want want more autonomy
01:19:22.500more freedom less oversight and overwatch from ottawa i mean that's where all the gatekeepers
01:19:27.780are that's what we have to remove from but but if the constitution gets them to the table what
01:19:31.860do you do at the table that will get that change you need get the rest of the provinces on side to
01:19:37.140get better hospital better health care funding get more rights in the senate and the house of
01:19:42.340commons so we actually have equal votes across the country there are so many things that we need to
01:19:47.060change the fiscal imbalance is clearly there equalization is one of those things the rest of
01:19:51.780provinces premiers are ready to go to the table over the pipeline ban we're ready
01:19:59.380that was my interview with brian gene in this campaign just a little while ago and we were
01:20:05.780touching on in that interview the idea of getting a fair deal from ottawa and this was uh to your
01:20:11.860point earlier william before covet came into the discussion here one of the big grievances i was
01:20:17.780hearing from a lot of the conservative base in Alberta about Jason Kenney is that he wasn't
01:20:22.520going to Ottawa banging his fist on the table and really standing up as forcefully as they wanted.
01:20:28.420And Danielle Smith's answer to that has been the Sovereignty Act. Brian Jean's answer to it has
01:20:32.900been autonomy. There is still a pocket of Alberta generally conservatives that want separation.
01:20:39.280They're done playing. They want out of Canada. And I don't know how large that group is versus
01:20:44.840how many of them are accessible UCP voters if someone is taking that issue seriously?
01:20:51.240Yeah, I mean, it's an important question. I don't think support for sovereignty is quite as high as
01:20:57.580it once was. I think when there was a NDP Premier in Alberta and a Liberal Prime Minister in Ottawa,
01:21:05.000that was a breeding ground for separatist sentiment. I think certainly there was a belief
01:21:10.560that none of our governments were on the side of everyday Albertans or the energy sector,
01:21:15.600things like that. I think there is a sovereignty movement out there, but I think a lot of it is
01:21:21.160probably just wanting to see concrete steps taken to try and protect Alberta from Ottawa's
01:21:28.700intervention. So things like creating an Alberta provincial police force or having an Alberta
01:21:34.340pension plan, or having Alberta collect all of the taxes, remitting only the federal share to
01:21:41.200Ottawa rather than having Ottawa do the collecting. And so it's some of these things, some of which
01:21:46.860will have a very big impact, others of which are a little bit more symbolic. But I think as long as
01:21:54.380whoever becomes a new premier is seen to be actually making concrete progress on it, I don't
01:21:59.800think you're going to see full-on separatist settlement really bubble up and become a motivating
01:22:05.660political force in Alberta again for at least right now. Our colleague Rachel Emanuel has been
01:22:11.660keeping very busy in Calgary and I understand she's got with her Rebecca Schultz's campaign
01:22:17.560manager so we'll go to Rachel now if she's up and run no she's not ready we'll go to her in a moment
01:22:23.860and she'll be with Rachel with Rebecca Schultz's campaign manager when we do go there. One thing
01:22:29.780I will note here is that a lot of the time, and this happened in the federal election campaign
01:22:35.240as well, we think things are a lot more acrimonious than they are. And then everyone does get under
01:22:41.560the banner. So, you know, nominations, leaderships, they're supposed to be tense. So it's not the end
01:22:46.220of the world when it is there. But the whole point is you also don't want like a liberal situation
01:22:49.840where you give so many and so bloody attacks in the leadership race that they become the attack
01:22:55.020ads in the general election. That was what happened with the famous, do you think it's
01:22:59.400easy to make priorities line from Stefan Dion. We have Rachel with Rebecca Polak now, I believe.
01:23:06.900Thanks, Andrew. I'm joined by Becca Polak, who, as I mentioned, is the campaign manager for Rebecca
01:23:10.920Schultz. Thanks for joining us, Becca. I'm wondering if you have any speculations, if you've heard
01:23:14.900anything about what we're expecting for the results tonight. You know, I don't know if I have
01:23:19.040any speculations, but you know, I think over 85,000 of our members came out tonight. So I think that
01:23:24.680says something about participation all I can say is I'm really proud of our team and where I think
01:23:29.980that we are but no speculations quite yet. Sure and you know Rebecca was polling sort of in the
01:23:34.940midway range throughout the campaign do you expect her to sort of fall in that in that voting area
01:23:39.340tonight or you maybe expect her to surge ahead a little bit fall behind where do you actually
01:23:42.860expect her to end up on the vote tonight? Well you know what I always like to think that I don't
01:23:47.600follow polls because I think although it's it's a good measure I think Rebecca's going to do well
01:23:54.520And you know what? We grinded to the very end.
01:23:57.460We started this thing, and almost nobody in Alberta knew Rebecca's name.
01:24:01.720And here we are tonight, and I think she's going to do well,
01:24:03.920and I'm proud of her regardless of the outcome.
01:24:06.500Something that I think was interesting about Rebecca Schultz
01:24:08.700is so many of the other candidates were very keen to target and attack Danielle Smith,
01:24:49.780We talked a lot about the Sovereignty Act.
01:24:51.600And I think there are other things that Albertans really, truly are looking for changes in health care, changes in education, affordability.
01:24:58.440And and I think that that's where our campaign really stood out, was just sticking to those things that we kept hearing.
01:25:04.220And so for that, I think that that was probably why we didn't show up on that stage.
01:25:09.360You know, and I think that's a very fair argument because the Sovereignty Act did dominate so much discussion of the UCP leadership race and some of the other issues and policies didn't actually have a chance to to break through.
01:25:19.140You know, on that point, we've been talking a little bit about how Daniel Smith was running sort of as an anti-establishment candidate.
01:25:24.340And some of the other candidates, you know, they work for Kennedy.
01:25:26.340They were one of Kennedy's ministers, including Rebecca Schultz, who was, you know, the children's service minister.
01:25:30.500She often touts her record and the great child care deal that she got from Ottawa in that role.
01:25:35.000She early on in the campaign said, you know, I'm not part of the boys club.
01:25:40.380Do you think that she was successful in positioning herself as a candidate who was, you know, not associated with Jason Kennedy and didn't carry his record?
01:25:47.720Well, you know, I don't know if it was disassociating from Jason Kenney
01:25:51.140because I can't say that our record was all that bad.
01:25:54.540Obviously, there's a reason why we're here tonight.
01:27:27.720And I think probably politically really unwise to tarnish the guy in the government
01:27:33.020who's been in power for, you know, coming on three and a half years.
01:27:36.960And Becca's points, which I think are well made,
01:27:39.660are that the Kennedy government did a lot of good things too.
01:27:43.060And I think, as I talked about a little bit earlier,
01:27:46.500there might be a danger that a new premier goes too fast and too far
01:27:52.760jettisoning either the legacy of the Kennedy government
01:27:57.560or some of the policies that got them the win.
01:28:01.260I think to be the anti Kenny, basically. Yeah, exactly. Either just to be the anti Kenny or to pull an Aaron O'Toole and drop the key things that got your base excited for you. And I think specifically, you're going to see a lot of pressure for Danielle Smith to maybe water down or even repudiate the Sovereignty Act. And in my personal opinion, that would be a politically very damaging move for her to make.
01:28:25.980I think it would consign her to defeat.
01:28:29.040Where candidates, and sometimes we're all guilty of this if we are on Twitter, we have
01:28:34.660to remember that the people on Twitter are not real people.
01:28:38.500They are a tiny fraction of hyper-engaged, usually very partisan people who you will
01:28:55.100Whereas what it's really about is winning the hearts and minds of ordinary people from one end of the province to the other. Those people are not on Twitter. They are at their jobs. They are taking care of their families. They're living their lives. They're not hyper obsessing about all of the minutiae on Twitter.
01:29:12.380So I think that's also something that candidates really have to bear in mind.
01:29:16.740The people telling them to apologize, to drop their support for things, or to demonize the
01:29:22.160Kenney legacy, these are not the voters that are even accessible to a re-elected United
01:30:40.460I mean, if you think about it, we were heading into another election cycle where there were going to be two strong conservative, small C conservative parties, the PC party and the Wild Rose party.
01:30:52.020The Wild Rose party winning primarily votes in rural Alberta, the PC party winning primarily votes in Calgary.
01:30:59.240But if they're splitting the votes in rural Alberta and in Calgary, it offers all the opportunity for Rachel Notley to win in one of those regions.
01:31:08.220And that is largely why she won in 2015 was a big chunk of Calgary ended up voting for her.
01:31:15.660So I do think that Kenny needs to be remembered as someone who made sure that, as he would like to say, the NDP were one and done in Alberta.
01:31:24.780We only had we kept them to a single term. So, yeah, no, you're totally right.
01:31:28.300And well, I didn't agree either with all of his management and COVID. I think there are obviously big examples we can think of how he approached some pastors and religious services, the decision to to call it the best summer ever.
01:31:42.120you know, Alberta was open forever, except then we locked down again and brought in a vaccine
01:31:47.340passport, things like that. And possibly he had taken a little bit more time to reflect and
01:31:55.680apologize for some of those things. Maybe it wouldn't have gotten to the crisis point it would.
01:31:59.960But certainly I do think there were a lot of great things he did, you know, part of which is
01:32:04.540the rewriting of Alberta's curriculum, which had gone completely crazy under the Democrats.
01:32:09.260And Alberta students were at risk of being able to neither do basic reading or basic arithmetic because of just education fads that the last government brought in.
01:32:19.120So we did have a major curriculum reform, and now Alberta students are once again improving in core areas like mathematics and reading.
01:32:27.620One thing that I will say is that we were talking earlier about how Jason Kenney was getting involved, I think, against most people's expectations in the leadership race.
01:32:36.720I think in general, one of the things that's very interesting to look at here is the fact that Jason
01:32:42.500Kenny's not going out quietly in terms of what he's doing as a premier right now. Like I can't
01:32:48.600share my screen at the moment, but I have had like more Alberta government press releases
01:32:53.980in the last few days than I think I've had in the last three years. So it just seems like there's
01:32:59.280announcement, announcement, announcement, announcement. And I don't know if this is
01:33:03.800just Jason Kenney getting things that were on his bucket list, off the bucket list, or if this is,
01:33:08.760you know, in a lot of ways, just an effort to build momentum. But it's some, it does sometimes
01:33:15.580actually, you know, give a bit of a complicated look at, are they committing the next leader to
01:33:22.160things that they don't want to do? Are they committing the leader to a path that they aren't
01:33:26.060necessarily ready to go down on? So I think we're going to have to explore these and many other
01:33:31.900questions as the program continues. I'm getting the word that we are just about to go back to the
01:33:38.380show in Calgary. So once I'm told to throw away, I'll do that. But just very, very quickly,
01:33:44.400William, do you think Kenny is trying to just like do as much as he can in these last few days
01:33:49.840that he's the premier? Yeah, I mean, I do think there is something to that. Maybe he just wants
01:33:56.240to burnish that record, that legacy a little bit as he's in his final days of office.
01:34:01.760But also as a premier who, when you do have that finite shelf life, you do want to get
01:38:12.520And let me tell you, if anybody thinks this party is in trouble, they ought to come and
01:38:18.240talk to me because I saw over, I saw 2,000 hours of volunteer time to make this process
01:38:26.080work. The bylaws of the United Conservative Party require that a
01:38:36.340leadership election be conducted via a one-member, one-vote system. Unlike the
01:38:43.840federal party, we do not have a riding-by-riding weighted system. In Alberta,
01:38:49.720one membership means one vote no matter where you live to be named leader a
01:39:02.440candidate must win a majority of the valid votes cast if after the first
01:39:08.600round no candidate receives a majority then the lowest place candidate will be
01:39:13.480dropped from the race and we will relocate their ballots based on their
01:39:17.920second choices and add them to the totals this process is repeated until a candidate receives
01:39:27.200a majority 50 plus one vote and now ladies and gentlemen the time has arrived
01:39:34.640we have the results for the first ballot no candidate has received a majority of
01:39:49.880the valid votes cast so we will go to another ballot Lila here has dropped off from the race
01:40:00.200and the next choice on those ballots will be redistributed to the other
01:40:04.700candidates we had eighty four thousand five hundred and ninety three ballots
01:40:12.880cast and I will read to you the percentage received by each candidate
01:40:21.100Leela Ahir 1.65% Brian Jean 10.99% Todd Lowen 7.68%
01:40:35.860Rajan Sani 2.11% Rebecca Schultz 6.9% Danielle Smith 41.31%
01:40:49.140percent. Travis Taves 29.35 percent. So those are the results of the first ballot and I'll be back
01:41:03.220in five minutes with the redistributed numbers. Thank you.
01:41:19.140That was the first round of results in the UCP leadership race.
01:41:40.080Now, I have to assume what they're doing is keeping us in deliberate suspense when they have the results in an envelope back there.
01:41:48.280But they're going to do this thing where every round they're going to come out and take five, six minutes, 10 hours, who knows how many between them.
01:41:54.920But I just want to give you those numbers here very quickly.
01:48:13.940And just before we throw back to Andrew over at the studio, I just want to mention that Raj and Sonny did have a little scrum a couple minutes ago,
01:48:21.180actually before they gave the first ballot. She said she had no regrets about the way that she
01:48:24.920ran her campaign and she was at peace with all those decisions. She also said something that I
01:48:28.500thought was very interesting. She said, I will support the leader, whoever it is. Now, the reason
01:48:32.540I think that's interesting is because Rajan Asani had sort of positioned herself as the Danielle
01:48:36.860Smith attack dog throughout the campaign. She was very critical of Danielle Smith's Alberta
01:48:41.340Sovereignty Act. And during the first UCP, official UCP debate, she was going after Smith at every
01:48:47.340opportunity candidates sort of had the opportunity to pick which other opponent they wanted to spar
01:48:51.780off with and you know rajin was consistently picking danielle and sort of tearing her to
01:48:56.100pieces and even made some really personal attacks like you know alberta doesn't need a talk show
01:49:00.440host so i do think it's interesting that she's now saying she's willing to throw her hat behind
01:49:04.520the leader and you know could be a sign of things to come if danielle does win the leadership tonight
01:49:08.940for that Rachel and thank you to Drew Barnes as well I've had Drew on my show a number of times so
01:49:17.960it's good to see they let him in the building because when you get kicked out of your party's
01:49:21.420caucus you never know if they're going to let you get around but obviously Todd Lowen has been
01:49:25.360allowed to run as a leadership candidate and so far has outlasted Lila here a former Jason
01:49:31.360Kenny cabinet minister which I think is quite significant now I just want to give you a bit
01:49:36.660of a heads up here. We're about to go back to the results in a moment. The feed is going to kick
01:49:43.500back in in just a couple of moments here. But I just want to point out again the numbers here
01:49:48.540because the numbers are very important. Danielle Smith has 41.3% of the vote on the first ballot.
01:49:55.220We are going to be in this for at least, at least three more rounds. And let me tell you how I know
01:50:03.460that because the bottom tier candidates right now have very small numbers. Rajan Sani, 2.1%.
01:50:10.120Even if every one of her people put Danielle Smith as their number two, Danielle Smith would still
01:50:14.960only be at 43.4%. And then Rebecca Schultz, same sort of thing. If every single one went for Danielle
01:50:22.940next, she'd be able to go. So the reason I think this is important is because the second ballot
01:54:30.620I, you know, what is interesting is I suspect a lot of people or at least a not insignificant number of people put no second choice.
01:54:39.260They voted for Leela and did not appear to have a second choice.
01:54:43.000That explains it to some degree why everyone's percentages also went up, because there are now fewer votes, total votes in the race.
01:54:51.080The two things, though, that leapt out at me were, first of all, Todd Lowen, who I think everybody kind of thought was, you know, not going to be a major force in this.
01:55:03.120He ran, I think, a pretty good campaign and did a pretty good job in the debates that I'd seen.
01:55:08.420And I think his score is actually quite respectable.
01:55:11.440He came far ahead of two current or former cabinet ministers.
01:55:17.220he was a before he was expelled he was a backbencher as i understand correct
01:55:21.540i believe he it's possible he may have had a position in caucus leadership to some degree but
01:55:26.980don't don't quote me on that i don't recall exactly but no he wasn't a minister uh in the
01:55:32.520kenny government um the other thing that really leaps out i think it's got to be a very disappointing
01:55:37.160evening for brian gene uh you know this was someone who uh on the last vote for leadership
01:55:43.120of the United Conservative Party. There were fewer candidates, but he had won in the 30s
01:55:49.880in terms of total support. And to see him barely cracking that 10% threshold, I think,
01:55:57.980is probably going to be quite disappointing for him and his team as the night goes on.
01:56:03.400Yeah, I'm inclined to agree. And it's been weird. It's been a bit of a weird coalition. And we were
01:56:08.600talking about this you and I earlier and also with Rachel it hasn't exactly been the Kenny camp
01:56:14.060versus the anti-Kenny camp like Brian Jean was a big critic probably one of Jason Kenney's loudest
01:56:20.160critics for quite some time but he also has tried to distinguish himself from Danielle Smith who
01:56:25.800similarly has I think picked up a lot of the people that had a lot of angst about Jason Kenney
01:56:30.600and I think this has been a little bit confusing and arguably this is the sort of situation without
01:56:35.740a ranked ballot that could have led to a significant vote split. But as you mentioned,
01:56:40.320there's been, it seems like a relative collapse in Brian Jean's vote. Now, obviously, he may
01:56:45.520be the beneficiary of, you know, some of Raj and Sonny's down ballot support or that of Rebecca
01:56:50.820Schultz or even Todd Lohan. We don't know until that happens. But it is interesting for a guy
01:56:55.860that I think at one point saw himself as the heir apparent to the premiership of Alberta. And now
01:57:01.740he's in a, not just third, but a very distant third on the leadership ballot. Yeah. I mean,
01:57:07.660I will say that his decision to immediately quit as a MLA after Jason Kenney won the leadership
01:57:16.300race, I think was probably in retrospect, not the greatest move because he could have been,
01:57:23.400and I think would have been a senior cabinet minister in a Jason Kenney government. And he
01:57:28.560would have had the ability to have a portfolio, to have consistent public profile. Instead,
01:57:34.920he's been away and you would see the odd op-ed from him, but you really didn't hear and see
01:57:41.220from Brian Jean that much after he left. So I think probably in retrospect, him getting a little
01:57:47.920bit, I mean, I won't say he left in a huff, but he certainly left quite quickly after he didn't win
01:57:52.300the first leadership race. I suspect maybe not have been the best move to win the leadership
01:57:57.720in the future. We are waiting for third ballot results, but let's just go to Rachel Emanuel in
01:58:03.820Calgary, who is right now with Conservative Member of Parliament, Chris Warkenton. Yeah, thanks very
01:58:09.940much, Andrew. I'm joined by Chris Warkenton, who is a Conservative Member for Parliament for
01:58:13.440Ram Prairie McKenzie, as well. He's also the campaign co-chair for Travis Daves. Thanks so
01:58:18.040much for joining us, Chris. We have some of the results so far. What do you make of them? Are they
01:58:22.080pretty much what you were expecting to see, or have you been surprised at all yet tonight?
01:58:25.760You know, it really is a close race, as we expected. Obviously, this is tighter than, of course, had been forecasted, but it was very close to what we expected.
01:58:34.420Do you think that Premier Jason Kenney wading into the leadership race had any impact on it?
01:58:39.340Pardon me? I'm just not overhearing you here. Sorry about that.
01:58:42.880Yeah, sorry. The feed has just started a little bit behind us. They're announcing their results right now. I think the feed is going to be a little bit delayed for them.
01:58:48.500I was just asking if you think, you know, Premier Jason Kenney wading into the race and commenting on things like the Sovereignty Act, did that impact the outcome at all?
01:58:55.760well i don't know i didn't hear from anybody that really felt that it did obviously there
01:58:59.680were many people that were commenting on the race and you know i don't think that that had
01:59:03.040significant impact on the intentions of people voting okay great thanks very much chris we're
01:59:07.600just going to throw to the stream now but hopefully we can get you back a little later
01:59:10.000for some more time thanks throw it back to you andrew thank you very much rachel and chris
01:59:16.880workington and i i should say for those who aren't familiar uh chris workington was one of the very
01:59:22.240instrumental figures in Alberta conservative politics who was driving the Unite the Right
01:59:28.160movement. He was touring Alberta alongside some other members of parliament and alongside
01:59:34.340surrogates for Jason Kenney. Jason Kenney himself trying to drum up support for Jason Kenney's PC
01:59:40.100leadership bid, which then became the merger votes in the PC and Wildrose parties, which then became
01:59:45.520the UCP leadership vote. So a lot of people forget all of the steps that Jason Kenney had to go
01:59:51.460through to get to the UCP. But we're getting third ballot results right now.
01:59:58.740Todd Lowen has dropped off from the race, and the next choices on those ballots will be
02:00:05.000redistributed to the other candidates.
02:00:47.420so that right there was a bit confusing i think they flubbed the numbers there but as i understand
02:01:03.820from looking at uh what uh rachel has uh sent me here in in writing danielle smith still in first
02:01:09.880place at 41.7%. So again, just a 0.3% bump in the last round. Travis Taves, he is now at 30.4%.
02:01:19.320So he's gone up about seven points, it looks like. Brian Jean, 12.1%. So he's gone up 0.8 points.
02:01:28.300And let's see, Todd Lowen now has dropped off the ballot. He had 7.7%, only went up to 7.8%.
02:01:35.900So he's just shy of Rebecca Schultz, who is now in fourth place at 8%.
02:01:41.700So here's where it starts to get a bit interesting.
02:01:44.880Now, I should say, even if with four candidates left, Rebecca Schultz is eliminated and every one of her votes went to Danielle Smith, which is unlikely to happen,
02:01:55.420Danielle Smith would still be at 49.7%.
02:01:58.860So not yet at that 50% plus one threshold.
02:02:02.640So, William, I mean, this is going to be, it looks fairly decisive, but she's having to work for her victory if it goes the way we think it's going to go.
02:02:12.720Yeah, and I think to be clear, though, the next round we'll see Todd Lowen's votes redistributed.
02:02:24.500But that's interesting because I think we will expect to see Danielle actually get a sizable bump in the next round of redistribution.
02:02:32.120I think people who voted Todd Lowen one are very likely to have made it Danielle Smith number two.
02:02:38.620And so that would take her not not into winning territory.
02:02:41.560But if a majority of the votes did go to her, it puts her pretty close to it.
02:02:46.180She doesn't need that many more votes in order to to go over the top.
02:02:51.040And so the question is now, assuming there isn't anything particularly crazy in the next round and Rebecca Schultz is eliminated from the ballot.
02:03:01.640where do her second or third or fourth choices go?
02:03:04.980Like, where did the people who had other candidates go?
02:03:25.660But assuming Danielle does pick up a majority of the votes from Todd Lowen,
02:03:30.100she is going to be pretty close on that next round. And it's possible we would see
02:03:36.020Rebecca's votes redistributed and that would be enough to get her over the top.
02:03:41.000Yeah. And thank you for correcting the numbers there. So the 7.8%, even if every single one of
02:03:48.100those went to Danielle Smith, she would be at, just to do the quick math here, 48.5%, I believe,
02:03:57.14048.5%. So still, we can't get 50% plus one. You're right, though. I mean, after that,
02:04:03.560it definitely does look like it's all but certainly a Danielle Smith victory. But
02:04:08.740you still have to wonder how it's going to get there. And I wouldn't be surprised if
02:04:12.680even assuming Rebecca Schultz is the next one to go. I mean, something weird could happen. But
02:04:18.100even if that happens, it's possible that if a small, small share of Rebecca Schultz votes go
02:04:24.560to Danielle Smith, they could go to yet another ballot. So that'll be the thing to watch here.
02:04:28.980But I just want to kind of ask you a bit more broadly about your take on some of these players.
02:04:35.540I mean, Rebecca Schultz has always struck me as a team player. She's been a movement conservative.
02:04:40.880I've been on stage with her at Canada Strong and Free networking conferences in the past. So
02:04:45.820I think she's definitely going to be one that will happily support whoever the next leader is.
02:04:51.000Brian Jean is the one that I find quite interesting here because he and Danielle Smith have both really tried to be and saw themselves as the alternate Kenny.
02:05:01.180So can those two work together in your view?
02:05:04.580Well, I think it's a very interesting question.
02:05:08.240Rebecca Schultz, I think she's done also well enough in this leadership race, improving her name recognition and her overall profile that I would expect to see her as a senior cabinet position in, say, a Daniel Smith-led government.
02:05:22.980Certainly, I think if it's Travis Tades, we would expect the same thing to have Rebecca Schultz there.
02:12:13.160I mean, if Danielle is able to win on the next ballot, I suspect it won't be by a huge margin.
02:12:20.540I suspect that it will be a mathematically, it'll be a mathematical win, but it'll be a very narrow margin for her.
02:12:27.960The only thing I can think of is maybe going to influence the vote is she now is the only female candidate who is running still on the ballot.
02:12:36.200If you were voting a slate of candidates that was all female, then you would have to make Daniel Smith your next choice.
02:12:42.980So I have no idea if that is something that people do when they vote.
02:12:48.460But, you know, people vote for all sorts of reasons, and they're not always the logical or obvious ones that you might assume.
02:12:55.800So I do think it'll be interesting, but I think we're either going to see Daniel Smith come within a handful of percentage points of winning or possibly even take it with a very razor within margin on the next ballot.
02:13:09.080Well, we're going to carry those results live as they come in.
02:13:13.760Rachel Emanuel is in Calgary at UCB headquarters.
02:13:16.680And I understand now she's with Tarek El Naga, who I've had on the show.
02:13:20.740And I've actually been on Tarek's horse before, which come to think of it might be animal cruelty.
02:18:36.720What I'm really excited about is to see, I mean, the Maverick platform is all about pro-Western autonomy.
02:18:41.960And it's really exciting to see candidates that are pro-Alberta autonomy, predominantly Danielle Smith here,
02:18:47.600really pushing that Alberta sovereignty and that Alberta autonomy message.
02:18:51.440And I'll take it. That's good news for Alberta, for sure.
02:18:54.600You know, we've got two candidates left. It's between Danielle Smith and Travis Taves.
02:18:58.300It's Taves when, you know, do you think that he's been an Alberta sovereignty candidate, you know, pro Alberta, or you're not really getting that messaging from him?
02:19:04.900Well, I think whoever wins it now realizes that half the base, give or take, is pro-sovereignty and pro-the-sovereignty act.
02:19:12.440So you're going to have to need to bring them in.
02:19:14.420So if Danielle is not the one that wins and Travis Taves wins, then he's going to have to bring that in.
02:19:19.560It's a pretty divided party, not dissimilar to how it was a 50-50 split with Kenny.
02:19:23.760so it's it's time to unify that party and and not discount the sovereignty movement of the party
02:19:29.540sure so you're mentioning you know the party you know people who are running they're kind of
02:19:33.140realizing that this is something that's important for the base you know i mentioned a bunch of people
02:19:36.460wanted you to run which shows that it is important for the base people wanted you to run you decided
02:19:40.140against that do you have any interest in running for a ucp nomination at any point you're going to
02:19:44.660step back from politics for the time being you know what i'm not going to close the door uh to
02:19:48.780running again. Right now, I've got a vested interest on making sure the NDP loses. So that's
02:19:55.240where I'm at. So whether Danielle wins or Travis wins, I want to see the NDP lose. There's no room
02:20:01.400for socialism in this province or in my life. And that's what I'm focused on. Whether I personally
02:20:06.220run or not, I'm not going to close the door on that. You mentioned that you want to make sure
02:20:09.980the NDP loses. We're talking a little bit about, oh, I'm sorry, we have the results again. At least
02:20:13.880we got a couple minutes this time. All right. Thanks very much. Yeah. Yeah. Take care. All
02:20:18.500right. All right. That was Tarek. We have some more results, so we're going to go to live.
02:20:28.920It's Danielle Smith. She's the premier and the crowd goes wild behind me. You can hear
02:20:32.840the excitement in the room. Danielle Smith has won with 53.77% of the vote. Travis Taves
02:20:40.100has come in second with 46.23% of the vote and you can just hear the excitement in the room
02:20:46.440it came all the way down to the end but Daniel Smith was able to pull a victory off at the end
02:20:51.300the question now will be whether the fact that she waited so long you know she didn't get that
02:20:55.840first ballot victory as many of us expected she didn't get that victory later to the end will
02:20:59.600that impact her ability to unite the caucus going forward and I'm sure your stream is just about
02:21:03.640up now so I'll throw back to you Andrew. Yeah thank you Rachel we will go to that feed when
02:21:08.840it comes in but uh danielle smith has won the ucp leadership race will be the next premier and uh
02:21:15.520just it sounds like from the raw numbers there that roughly half of brian gene's votes went to
02:21:21.780danielle smith and roughly half went to travis taves and as william and i were saying uh it
02:21:26.120would have needed to be more much more lopsided than that uh here are the official numbers
02:21:30.520Ladies and gentlemen, we have the results of the sixth ballot.
02:21:40.200Our members have elected a new leader.
02:21:42.700Please welcome the next Premier of our province, Danielle Smith.
02:23:57.900And you should also know the family connection that we have with our returning officer, Rick Orman, was the very first campaign that I worked on in 1992 when he was running for leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party.
02:24:12.200and the reason I supported him is because he and my dad played football together at Crescent Heights
02:24:17.620and dad is here this evening as well Rick if you want to go over and say hello so I'm just so
02:24:21.720delighted that our big conservative family is all together in one room united and strong
02:24:29.540my fellow albertans over the last 117 years we have written a remarkable story together
02:24:43.340it's a story of pioneers and farmers entrepreneurs and innovators communities and families a place
02:24:52.620where the best and brightest come from every corner of this world to join with us in building
02:24:58.140one of the greatest places on earth to live to work and to raise our families
02:25:07.980tonight marks the beginning of a new chapter in the alberta story it is time for alberta
02:25:14.060to take its place as a senior partner in building a strong and unified canada
02:25:19.900no longer will alberta ask permission from ottawa to be prosperous and free
02:25:31.360we will not have our voices silenced and censored
02:25:39.460we will not be told what we must put in our bodies in order to work or to travel
02:25:49.900We will not have our resources landlocked or our energy phased out of existence by virtue-signalling Prime Ministers.
02:26:05.680Albertans, not Ottawa, will chart our own destiny on our own terms,
02:26:10.380and we will work with our fellow Canadians to build the most free and prosperous country on Earth.
02:26:19.900before speaking further i wanted to thank first and foremost my husband david it's funny when i
02:26:26.940started running again somebody asked me if i'd gotten divorced because david standard answered
02:26:32.300when anyone asked me if i was getting in politics again was yeah she's welcome to get back into
02:26:37.500politics with her new husband he still loves me after all this imagine that my wonderful parents
02:26:45.100doug and sharon are here this evening as my uncle blaine and my brother carrie my brother doug and
02:26:50.700his wife carrie i'm delighted to have my family with me but i do also want to congratulate and
02:26:55.900thank my fellow leadership candidates not only for their commitment to the party but also to
02:27:01.180democracy over the last several months these great men and women have placed their lives on hold and
02:27:07.500sacrificed greatly because they love this province with all their hearts they want to see our
02:27:12.700province move forward with strength and prosperity as much as anyone in Alberta. I want to thank
02:27:19.020Travis Chaves for his integrity and for leading the charge and bringing our province's budget
02:27:28.540back to surplus from the brink of disaster under Rachel Notley's NDP.
02:27:33.820Alberta and our caucus are going to lean heavily on your strength and experience in the months
02:27:43.800and years ahead. I also want to thank Brian Jean for his passion and commitment to the grassroots
02:27:49.220and to making life more affordable for millions of Albertans suffering from the inflation crisis
02:27:54.440brought on by the NDP Liberal Coalition in Ottawa. Thank you.
02:27:58.340and on a personal note i want to thank brian for showing leadership after i made a mistake
02:28:07.120in judgment in 2014 learning from your example has prepared me for today and this party will
02:28:13.560always owe you a debt of gratitude as one of the founders of this united conservative party thank
02:28:19.380you Brian I also want to recognize Rebecca Schultz for her compassion class
02:28:28.320and innovative ideas Rebecca you are one of the brightest lights in our province
02:28:37.140and I can't wait to work with you to ensure so many of those great ideas
02:28:40.800become a reality to Todd Lowen thank you so much for reminding us that MLAs are
02:28:54.780the voice of the people in government not the government's mouthpiece to the
02:28:59.920people and I look forward to working with you to ensure caucus lives by that
02:29:06.800that principle moving forward. And on that note, I understand that over this last week, Todd,
02:29:12.620your fellow UCP MLAs indicated overwhelmingly in favor of you to rejoin the UCP caucus.
02:29:22.640And I invite you to attend our caucus meeting tomorrow morning so we can get back to work.
02:29:26.900So thanks so much and welcome back, Todd. I also want to thank Raj Ansani for her class
02:29:35.160and commitment to vulnerable and senior Albertans and I look forward to advancing those causes
02:29:40.440together Rajan and to Lila here thank you for your passion and commitment to serving Albertans
02:29:48.760even if that means fighting a cowboy who's fallen off a uh a bull or fighting no other way fighting
02:29:55.280a bull to save a fallen cowboy thanks Lila I want to thank each and every one of you who ran
02:30:04.460You're all great Albertans, and I look forward to serving alongside you.
02:30:08.800I would be remiss as well if I did not thank my friend, Premier Jason Kenney.
02:30:18.880Let us remember that Premier Kenney has fought for Albertans for decades,
02:30:25.980then as one of the most effective and influential Conservative Cabinet Ministers in Canadian history,
02:30:31.620then leading the charge on unifying the conservative movement, running and beating
02:30:36.040Rachel Notley's NDP, and then governing as premier for one of the most tumultuous times in Alberta
02:30:41.460history. Although we may have had our differences these last couple of years on a couple of matters
02:30:46.800of policy, I want him to know that I admire and respect him. Thank you, Jason, for being
02:30:52.400such a loyal Canadian and a giant in the conservative movement. Thank you, premier.
02:31:01.620And a special thanks to my campaign team who dedicated the last few months of their lives to helping us get to this moment. I simply wouldn't be here without you. And I should name just a few. The leadership of Matt Altheim, my campaign manager from Edmonton.
02:31:17.600yeah you'll be happy to know he knows how to beat nvp in their own backyard that's why we've got
02:31:24.420him on our team and rob anderson who's been such a great support for me over the years an incredible
02:31:30.700policy advisor thank you and also the the other team i have to tell you one one of my campaign
02:31:37.060members would always introduce our team saying we've got an lpn an electrician at home moms a
02:31:42.540single mom, a PhD, and a yak farmer. And that is no joke. Every campaign needs a yak farmer.
02:31:51.000And finally, thank you to our almost 125,000 UCP members and the thousands of volunteers from
02:31:57.520every campaign in all corners of our province. Thank you for loving and serving our province.
02:32:03.260Thank you for the hours spent fighting for your party, your candidate, and for the values that
02:32:09.080they represent. If there's one thing I've learned about Albertans, it's that we don't expect our
02:32:13.660leaders to be perfect, but we do expect them to stay humble, admit when they're wrong, and to
02:32:19.580learn from their mistakes. I love that about our province, and I'm grateful to have earned this
02:32:28.260second chance from you. I will never forget it, and I pledge to you tonight, I will not let you down.
02:32:39.080My friends, tonight I invite all United Conservative Party supporters, our party, our caucus, fellow
02:32:48.500leadership candidates, all of us, regardless of who we supported during this leadership
02:32:52.840race, to come together and unite for the good of our great province.
02:34:03.860They have given us direction on how they want us to stand up to Ottawa and protect our freedoms.
02:34:08.240And we will follow our members' direction on this without delay.
02:34:14.800However, every single UCP MLA, regardless of who they supported or what they have said
02:34:20.280or what decisions they have made in the past, good or bad, is not important at this moment.
02:34:25.500All that matters now is that what we do to serve Albertans from this day forward.
02:34:30.540And I want to invite each of our MLAs, our members, our volunteers, our supporters, every single one of you to join me to govern with strength and compassion, to protect our fellow Albertans from the NDP-Liberal coalition in Ottawa, and to lead this party to a resounding victory against the NDP in 2023.
02:34:48.960to win in 2023 we need to focus on the issues Albertans are most concerned with as you know
02:35:01.260Canada and Alberta are in the midst of an inflation and affordability crisis that has
02:35:05.760been primarily caused by the fiscally destructive policies of the NDP coalition with the Liberals
02:35:11.980in Ottawa when you flood the money supply with hundreds of billions of new spending
02:35:16.220and pursue policies that spike the price of energy and transportation,
02:35:21.020the result is crippling inflation that is hurting a sizable majority of Albertans.
02:35:26.780The 30-year-old university graduate living in her parents' basement
02:35:30.220because she can't afford the damaged deposit on a rental.
02:35:33.780The single mom who has to resort to smaller and less nutritious meals
02:35:37.220for her young son and daughter because she can't make the budget stretch any further.
02:35:41.820The working father forced to take extra shifts in overtime
02:35:44.960because if he doesn't he won't be able to pay for the extra interest being charged on the family's
02:35:49.760mortgage from repeated interest rate hikes and the senior living on a fixed income anxious about how
02:35:56.320they're going to afford to pay for their needed prescriptions when their power and heating bills
02:36:01.440increase this coming winter these are not uncommon stories they're they are not exceptions to the
02:36:07.280rule i've been speaking with hundreds of these albertans for months albertans and all canadians
02:36:13.600are suffering terribly every day at the hands of an inflation and affordability crisis
02:36:18.640and that is why i find it so callous that in the middle of this crisis
02:36:22.720the ndp liberal coalition in ottawa just decided to triple the carbon tax
02:36:30.800this will only make energy and groceries and food and fuel and housing more expensive
02:36:36.640everything we need to live and i find it incomprehensible that rachel notley has so
02:36:41.600so far refused to call on her federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh to lobby his taxing cohort Justin
02:36:48.060Trudeau to reverse that terrible decision hurting Alberta families. There is no excuse for any party
02:36:58.060leader seeking to be Premier of Alberta to sacrifice the welfare of Albertans for the sake
02:37:03.300of towing the line of her federal party. It is time for Ms. Notley to put the welfare of Albertans
02:37:09.280above the anti-Alberta policies of her federal NDP leader.
02:37:18.920She is not putting Alberta first, and that's the difference between us.
02:37:22.820I will always, always put Albertans first. No apologies.
02:37:32.800Clearly, Albertans want nothing to do with the Notley Singh-Trudeau alliance of economic destruction.
02:37:38.060But to earn the trust of Albertans, we need to do more than just stand up to the NDP Liberal
02:37:44.020Coalition. We must do more than be the party of economic growth and balanced budgets and debt
02:37:49.160reduction and lower taxes. That's just part of who we are as a party and as a government.
02:37:54.480But we also need to show Albertans that we can be trusted to compassionately care for our vulnerable
02:37:59.580and our seniors, especially in this time of crippling inflation. We need to reform the
02:38:04.920dysfunction of Alberta Health Services and repair our broken EMS services with
02:38:10.040swift decisive action. That also means repairing our relationship with nurses
02:38:17.640and doctors. It means replacing managers with frontline staff. It means attracting,
02:38:23.640exactly, it means attracting additional health professionals from around the
02:38:28.740world and it means that as premier when I direct AHS management to double ICU
02:38:34.860capacity by a specific date and give them the resources to do so, that direction is followed
02:38:40.900immediately. And if they can't do that, then we will find others who can do it for them.
02:38:53.220Although we will always balance the budget and control increases in spending, we must also
02:38:57.920demonstrate the compassion Albertans expect of us by ensuring the vulnerable can afford the
02:39:03.380necessities of life during this inflationary crisis. We must ensure our teachers, our children
02:39:09.620have the teachers and education assistants and tutors that they need to succeed, especially
02:39:15.160after the disruption to education over the last couple of years. We must address the mental health
02:39:20.720and opioid crisis that is stealing our young people from us. And we must give a hand up, a warm
02:39:26.980hug, real hope and real help to those on our streets who don't know where else to turn. We are
02:39:32.820Albertans. Yes, we are entrepreneurs and business people and fiscally prudent, but we also have
02:39:42.240heart and compassion that matches the size of our mountains. Our generous compassion is the
02:39:47.860very soul of Alberta, and Albertans demand a government that reflects that compassion,
02:39:52.740especially in times like these. As premier, I will ensure we act swiftly to demonstrate exactly that.
02:40:02.820Now, friends, in the months ahead, we must recognize that there are those in Ottawa and the establishment, even some in Alberta, that don't want to see our party be unified.
02:40:12.860They don't want us to succeed. And sadly, these folks will do and say almost anything to keep us from succeeding.
02:40:19.540They will dredge up old statements and mistakes from the past.
02:40:22.700They will use cancel culture and fear mongering in an attempt to scare and dissuade Albertans from supporting our MLAs and me.
02:40:29.980For example, it is safe to say that many in the not-leasing Trudeau alliance will claim that my plan to stand up to Ottawa with the Sovereignty Act is somehow meant to move Alberta toward leaving our beloved Canada.
02:40:43.560What Albertans want is for our province and all provinces to have our rights under the Constitution of Canada protected and respected by an increasingly hostile Ottawa regime that seeks to control every aspect of our lives.
02:40:59.980From health care to education, to free speech, to delivery of our social programs,
02:41:07.080they want to control it all, because that makes it easier for them to impose their agenda
02:41:12.560on Albertans and on Canadians. That is not the way to unify a country or secure prosperity.
02:41:18.740That is a road to division and economic ruin, which is why, in closing tonight, I want to speak
02:41:24.980to our fellow Canadians. Albertans love Canada. It is our country, our home. All we want is to
02:41:32.540live, grow, and prosper in the manner that we choose. We want to set our own course,
02:41:44.120develop our resources and economy, and run our social programs and society as we think best.
02:41:50.380We also want to share our prosperity with the entire country.
02:41:54.340So tonight, I invite every Canadian to partner with us, partner with Alberta.
02:41:59.560Let's work together to build a strong, prosperous, and unified Canada that we know that we can be.
02:42:10.260A Canada where provinces work together and empower one another to reach our unique individual goals and aspirations.
02:42:17.080A Canada that celebrates our great diversity of opinion and thought, rather than one that demonizes and sanctions one another for expression and speech deemed unacceptable by woke politicians in Ottawa.
02:42:32.260A Canada that respects all of our citizens, regardless of their religious, cultural, or political beliefs.
02:42:38.860Together, we can be the solution to the world's energy crisis and wrestle away the leverage
02:42:45.060that thug dictators are using against an energy-starved Europe.
02:42:53.260Together, we can be the energy superpower that provides billions of people in Africa
02:42:58.820and in Asia with the clean LNG needed to replace their reliance on coal, wood, and other high
02:43:05.100emission fuel sources, saving billions of tons of emissions and replacing them with billions
02:43:10.100of dollars for our citizens and our economy and our social programs.
02:43:17.480We can become the nation that develops the breakthrough technologies that make continued
02:43:22.240fossil fuel use not only possible but preferable for fueling the energy needs of this generation
02:43:28.080and the next. And we can feed the planet with our world-class food producers and technologies.
02:43:34.080We can build the most innovative, entrepreneurial, and well-educated workforce in the developed world where students are taught to create and build and innovate rather than to conform, obey, and profess allegiance to failed and outdated ideologies.
02:43:49.620Alberta wants to play a central role in building that Canada with you as an equal partner and I
02:43:59.480invite you and those you elect to join us in building the most prosperous and free country
02:44:04.300on earth. My friends, tomorrow I'm going to be meeting with our MLAs and we will discuss unity
02:44:15.440and how to best meet the massive responsibility in front of us.
02:44:18.880And like you, we will all be returning home to celebrate Thanksgiving,
02:44:22.900to give thanks for our families and loved ones that for too long were kept apart,
02:44:28.100to give thanks for our freedoms and the opportunities ahead,
02:44:31.760and to give thanks for our great province, her wide open spaces, pristine landscapes, and amazing people.
02:44:38.880And after Thanksgiving next Tuesday, I will travel to our capital city to be sworn in
02:44:54.700Thank you, and may God keep our land glorious and free.
02:45:13.840That is Alberta's Premier-designate, Danielle Smith, now the leader of the United Conservative Party.
02:45:31.160As she just said at the end there, as of Tuesday, she will be the Premier of Alberta,
02:45:36.160getting sworn in at the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton on Tuesday,
02:45:40.080although getting right to a business meeting with caucus tomorrow
02:45:43.660And before I bring my colleague, William McBeth, back in, I want to just point out the, I guess, the breaking news that came out of this is that she has extended the hand to Todd Lowen, the expelled former UCP MLA and her competitor in this race and said, you know, come on back tomorrow morning.
02:46:00.140And that's, I think, a very big step, not necessarily a surprising one, but I think a very important one.
02:46:04.800Yeah, absolutely. I think if you listen to large sections of her speech, she went out of her way to talk about her fellow candidates and a lot of the work they had done. And that, of course, is very important when you're trying to put together a sometimes fractious group of MLAs and leadership candidates who didn't win, who won't be getting sworn in as premier on Tuesday.
02:46:25.220So I definitely think she said a lot of very interesting things in her speech.
02:46:29.420It's pretty clear what her key talking points are going to be, the freest, most prosperous place in the world.
02:46:37.200But I would say you also heard her talk about a lot of things that maybe people wouldn't have assumed or associated with Daniel Smith.
02:46:44.460Things like caring for the less fortunate, for our seniors, or people who are having trouble buying food or medication or paying for their heat.
02:46:52.420So I think you will see a clear, gentler gang out on the domestic front, even as she maintains a fairly aggressive posture against Ottawa.
02:47:04.000Yeah, I think that's a very reasonable analysis.
02:47:06.920And I want to bring in Rachel Emanuel, our Alberta reporter, who's been doing some tremendous work on the ground in Calgary and gave you the leadership results even before the UCP feed did.
02:47:17.980She's like faster than the Internet, which is fantastic.
02:47:20.100So although not saying much sometimes if you're a customer of some companies.
02:47:24.560But in any case, Rachel, let's talk a little bit about your sense overall now.
02:47:30.840Not a huge surprise in terms of the results.
02:47:34.140In fact, even when you were talking to people from other campaigns, there seemed to be an understanding earlier on that this was headed towards a Danielle Smith victory.
02:47:41.880But as someone who's been following her campaign in Alberta politics, when you heard her speech, what was your take on it?
02:47:48.560Anything that you were surprised that she included in there or anything noteworthy that maybe you weren't surprised by, but you think it's something that people need to pay attention to?
02:47:57.560You know, I think she came out really strong in her speech just now.
02:48:00.280We heard a lot of the points that she's been making throughout the campaign.
02:48:02.600And I think I noted in my coverage of it in my written article that she really started this crusade against, you know, COVID-19 and against some of the policies that we've seen regarding COVID-19.
02:48:12.180She started that when she was on the radio during her sort of exodus from politics, if you will.
02:48:16.840She was really pushing back on a lot of the government narrative on COVID-19.
02:48:20.060You know, she interviewed Jason Kenney at some points and disagreed with some of his decisions, including decisions like to imprison pastors.
02:48:26.800And we saw a lot of those early conversations that she had translate itself into the UCP leadership race, into her policy in the leadership race, and a lot of the policies that she put forward.
02:48:36.220And, you know, I think that's, to her credit, one of the reasons she was able to set herself apart from the other candidates, because some of the candidates that were with Kendi when those decisions were made, you know, understandably probably didn't feel comfortable making those decisions because it would have looked rather silly given their record being in the Kendi government.
02:48:50.620And I think now, during her final speech just now, we just saw a stronger version of that.
02:48:54.860you know she came out and she reiterated a lot of the points that she made during the campaign and
02:48:59.320you know she just was really solidified her promises to protect people's ability to put
02:49:03.860what they want to in their bodies and again to fight back from ottawa she of course has positioned
02:49:08.480herself as someone who will go toe-to-toe to ottawa if she won the premiership now she has
02:49:12.500and she's made it very clear that that will be a number one priority for her from the get-go and
02:49:16.700that's been evidenced by her promise to make the alberta sovereignty act to be her first piece of
02:49:21.040legislation when she's in government so I thought we heard a lot of things here from her speech
02:49:25.420today that she's been saying the last couple of weeks you know at many campaign events that I've
02:49:29.380been to I see similar messaging from her since I started covering her campaign in the early days of
02:49:34.360May. Before I ask you another question there Rachel Justin Trudeau has just tweeted I would
02:49:41.660like to congratulate Danielle Smith on becoming the next Premier of Alberta let's work together
02:49:46.580to build a better future for Albertans by delivering concrete results,
02:49:50.540making life more affordable, creating good jobs, and more.
02:49:54.020So we'll see if the pleasantries last to their first meeting.
02:49:58.640One thing that has come up here is that she does not have a seat.